When you need to get things off your chest.

The Problem with Universal Healthcare

There has been a never-ending call for free universal healthcare. It has been said that healthcare is a human right, and as such, healthcare should be absolutely free.

But if somehow we were able to provide free universal healthcare, could this cause potentially harmful effects?

People often complain about the cost of their premiums and the cost of prescriptions. But is this at the fault of the hospitals? Or could this possibly be the fault of the insurance companies?

Let’s say you go to the doctor for an injured hand. The doctor recommends that you get an x-ray so that he can better assess your injury. Do you think you would be able to get the total cost of this doctors visit before you receive any care? That would be a resounding NO!

Doctors, nurses, and even the billing department will not be able to tell you what that doctor’s visit would end up costing you. They have to run it through the insurance companies first.

So it would stand to reason that insurance companies have a great deal of power over hospitals, not the other way around. That being said, would it really be a good idea to give them more power?

Having a “free” universal healthcare system would allow insurance companies to have full control over how hospitals operate. They would be able to dictate pay, equipment, and even staffing. When you control a companies income, you control the company. It works the same way for hospitals.

But maybe you feel that this would still be preferable than letting the hospitals dictate how they spend their money. After all, isn’t it the evil rich doctor ruining people’s lives by charging an excessive amount to hand out IB Profin? Not exactly. What most people forget about doctors isn’t the crazy amount of time they spend in college to earn their degree, it’s their residency.

Now doctors average $40,000 a year when they are residents. However, they also have a large debt they have to start repaying at the same time. To be a general physician will cost you around $200,000 in school loans. So, to be a doctor is to start your career in extreme debt.

Now, do you think if there was a cap on how much you could earn as a doctor, that you would spend ten to twelve years in school? Probably not. And it’s not only doctors that would be affected by free universal healthcare. If the government has control over our hospitals our care would suffer.

Places like Canada and Germany are always referenced as countries that have successfully implemented universal healthcare. However, this is not the case. Having a universal healthcare system is not sustainable. Which is why places like Canada and Germany had to implement privatized healthcare.

It’s apparent that our current healthcare system isn’t working. And although there have been constant cries for universal healthcare, is it really something that would work? Do we really think implementing something that has been tried by other countries and has failed, is something we want for our country? Or is there another way we could change our current healthcare system?